Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers 2 (NES) Retro Review

Here we are in the middle of the week, and it's time for another retro review. This time we're taking a look at the second of two Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Ranger games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. This one is the less-than-stellar sequel. How does it hold up? Let's find out.

Chipmunk Funk

Following up the pretty successful Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers game, Capcom and Disney teamed up for the sequel, cleverly titled Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers 2. When Fatcat breaks out of prison (an animal pound maybe?), it's up to Chip and his goofy brother Dale to track the morbidly obese feline down and put him back behind bars.

Rescue Rangers 2 plays a lot like the original which can be considered good or bad. There's no world map this time so players simply move from one level to another. Each level concludes with a somewhat simplistic boss battle. Levels will take players from the counter-tops of a kitchen to the saloons and gun-slinging foes of Western World, so there is a level of variety to the game's playgrounds. Chip and Dale do not have the ability to directly attack enemies. Instead they opt to pick up various boxes scattered throughout the levels to chuck at the baddies blocking their way. In the levels Chip 'n Dale can find little R/R tokens. Collecting fifty of these will give them an extra life to work with. However, this game is pretty easy, so players will probably only lose lives to an occasionally difficult boss battle or missed jump.

Forgive the brevity of the review, but we can attribute that to the brevity of the game. Players will most likely breeze through the title in an afternoon. However, if one has another buddy they can play through the game with them like the original Chip 'n Dale title. It's amusing to toss a friend at an enemy or into a bottomless pit (I'm such a bastard), but with how short the game is the average player's attention span will long for some other title. Ultimately, those looking for a very good Capcom/Disney NES game should look toward the original Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers and only pick up this title if they have a fetish for chipmunks in human clothing.